The recent recession has been dubbed as the worst so far. In fact, the Japanese believed that it is a lot worse than what they have experienced during World War II. The Americans, on the other hand, had compared it to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

As deficits and credits rose, more companies had decided to close, if not reduce their number of employees. Hence, the job market was one of the most affected, posting an increase of unemployment rate of 10 percent during November 2009. More workers were out of jobs for 10 weeks or more. They also did not have enough savings to sustain them for a long time.

Virtually all sectors had to suffer from the pains of economic recession, including the IT job market. The dilemma has brought a number of changes in the industry. These include the following:

The Growth of Health Care IT

One of the pressing problems among employees and families during the economic recession was the lack of health care insurance. The cost of medication and hospitalization was high, but Americans did not have enough funds.

The Obama administration has then set their eyes on the health care industry. The President proposed a lot of modifications in the sector, including the introduction of information technology to automate processes, to reduce the costs of running a health care facility.

During the economic recession, there were more than 10,000 employees hired in the health care sector. A huge number of health care facilities had also been hiring software developers to create and improve their electronic health records.

Greater Job Satisfaction, Wish for Better Pays

Global Knowledge and TechRepublic conducted a survey on over 19,000 IT workers, both located in Canada and the United States, and the results had been very interesting. For one, around 70 percent had expressed satisfaction over their jobs for the past one or two years. This could be because the IT sector immediately learned how to adapt to the changing times.

However, 88 percent of the respondents were also looking for a more competitive salary to make them feel more satisfied. Over 80 percent wanted job recognition, while around 75 percent hoped to balance their work and personal life. 74 percent looked for job security, and more than 50 percent hoped for a promotion. Only 37 percent believed that they were fairly paid.

The Need for More Trainings and Certifications

The economic recession taught companies to be very picky when it comes to the applicants they hire. Thus, most of the IT professionals hired during the economic recession were those who had certifications and proper trainings.

On the upside, this brought about the demand of IT training companies. Most of the firms that offer trainings and assessments for professionals also offered new courses, such as computer security, forensic data mining, and health care information management.

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